Update: I went to a Walmart and tried to do the "change payment method" workaround with the Fred Meyer (US Bank) VGC.

No Joy.

Then I went to a Fred Meyer to make a purchase and could not run it as credit ("Not Authorized"). Couldnt' run it as debit either. And this was at the store I had just purchased the card from the day before!

I called the number on the card. She said that I had tried to do a return and that this had "locked" the card.

Ok, this is what happened:
-I bought the card at Fred Meyer last night and then 30 minutes later went to a Walmart to load BB.
-I went to Customer Server (rather than a checkout lane)
-She took my BB, set it up, and everything looked ok.
-I swiped my VGC.
-beeps, beeps, something wrong
-she says it is trying to do a RETURN to my card.
-confusion ensues
-manager comes over
-manager admonishes the csr for not "clearing the previous transaction"
-manager clears my transaction and we start over with the BB load
-load fails with "DEBIT NOT ALLOWED"
-I leave, dejected.

That was yesterday

Today I returned to Walmart and tried a BB load. "DEBIT NOT ALLOWED'

Then I go to the Fred Meyer where I purchased the card the day before and try to buy ~$30 worth of groceries.

Credit is rejected, Debit is rejected.

I call credit card phone number, she says the "return" caused the card to get locked up.

Now I have to fax the receipt, card number, name, phone, etc... to get the card reactivated.

I'll update in a week to ten days.

Geez...

Did you guys check the available balance on the website? We had this problem a while back and it turned out there were fraudulent charges on the card. $100 from GAP and according to this forum this happens quite frequently. No wonder it didn't go through at WM with $500 as there was $100 already blocked. Fortunately the pending charge never posted and the full balance was available ~1 week later. At the time I was able to use this card for my Redbird running it as credit. Since then we never change the preset PIN anymore. It seems like this PIN resetting via automated phone call is a hit or miss. Using the preset PIN ever since and never had a problem again...

My problem card has the full 500 still on it. I double checked because I too had an issue with fraudulent charges on one of my cards last year. (It took 4 months, 3 faxes, and multiple phone calls, but I did get the stolen funds back.) This time around, it is simply an issue of the card not running as debit.

So one of my Ralph's was out of variable load VGC and MGC today. I went to the Albertson's next door - first time for me. Got the same variable $500 MGC from US Bank as I usually buy @ Ralph's. Went to the next Target to unload it to Redbird and as I open the package there is no PIN. Instead of the sticker with the number there's a similar sticker but with a barcode and a number like 0000086. Is this supposed to be the PIN? Like 0086? Just in case I called the 866 number to change the PIN but as we know that sometimes doesn't mean anything. Since the Target was so crowded I went back home and didn't load my Redbird. Anybody here can comment on this?

Were you concerned about exercising your option to pay with credit at Target?

why didn't you grab the metabank visas that albertson's usually carries?

No I wasn't. I was wondering what happened to the PIN of these USB cards.

Sounds like one of the older ones. If I remember correctly, the US Bank cards have only started having PINs included in the package within the last year. Before that, you always had to call to set your PIN. So no, the PIN wouldn't be 0086. There would have been no preset PIN at all. You did right to call.

FWIW went back to the Target today - no lineup - and unloaded that MGC without a hitch to RB. Thanks bobert24, seems like your answer nailed it.

Went to three local Kroger (1.2 mi, 3 mi, 16 mi), all $500 MGC/VGC 'temporary out of stock'. Not know why this happen, because there were always a lot of $500 cards.

Did you get this sorted out yet? I had a problem about a month ago where I entered the wrong PIN on a USB MCGC. Ended up having to call twice to get it reset. I thought the first rep fixed it, but got the same error at Kate. Called again the next day and the second rep said something about another setting that the first rep didn't reset. I don't remember exactly what the settings were, but maybe this will help you.

Got a printout at the register today. 4x points on gc's Mar 22 - Apr 5. Must add digital coupon first. Restrictions apply (I assume this just means 0pts on variable vgc's/mc's/prepaids).

Thank you! I'm good for April but will go in first week of April for May points!

Curious if anyone has a best-practices answer for this.

I had two cards that did not activate properly. I faxed all of the required documentation in and am waiting for them to be properly activated. I've gone through this once before, so not all that worried about that part of it. HOWEVER, in the interim, the pin-cards that came with the gift cards have gotten mixed up. So, I have two gift cards and two pins, but I do not know which pin goes with which card. Once the cards are activated, am I best to call and set a pin before I try anything, or should I use the pin on the card with a 50% chance that it is wrong? Does it matter? Just don't want them to get "locked"

Thanks

Just set the pin by phone. I've bought hundreds of VGCs from Kroger and have always been able to run the cards through debit. If you get some sort of error when trying debit and you know you have the right pin, just come back the next day and it will work.